The full cast and creative team have been announced for Hey! Christmas Tree, an enchanting, funny and heart-warming festive story about the importance of finding friendship and somewhere to call home, created especially for Chichester Festival Theatre by Michael Morpurgo.
Inspired by Morpurgo’s book of poems My Heart Was a Tree, and written for the stage by Vicki Berwick, with music and lyrics by Eamonn O’Dwyer, Hey! Christmas Tree runs at Chichester’s Minerva Theatre from 7 – 29 December (press performance: Wednesday 11 December at 1.30pm). Dale Rooks, whose Chichester productions include The Butterfly Lion, Running Wild and The Wind in the Willows, directs.
The cast is: Olivia Arnold (Sleeping Beauty, Peter Pan) as Yulia; Callum Balmforth (RSC’s The Box of Delights, TV’s Doctors, Queen Cleopatra) as Winston; Samantha Bingley (Beauty and the Beast West End) as Susan the Snow Woman/Father Christmas; Amanda Gordon (Jerusalem West End, EastEnders) as Mavis; and Nick Howard-Brown (Hamlet Theatre Royal Windsor, TV’s D-Day: The Unheard Tapes) as Tree.
Dale Rooks says: ‘I’m thrilled to have gathered such a wonderful company for the world premiere of Michael Morpurgo and Vicki Berwick’s delightful tale, and am particularly delighted that the team includes five former Chichester Festival Youth Theatre members. Nick Howard-Brown, who plays Tree; our video designer, Dan Hill; assistant director Alice O’Hanlon; production manager Joe Jenner; and ASM Hannah Lipton, who all trace their professional careers back to their early experiences with CFYT. I’m so looking forward to working with them all again.’
Tree is rescued from the forest at Christmas time by Mavis, the motorbiking park ranger, who lives with her cheeky cat Winston and 9-year-old Yulia, who doesn’t want to talk and is a long way from home. Tree has never had Christmas before and isn’t sure about all the decorations he has to wear. But he meets Father Christmas and the Snow Woman, and with Yulia to care for him, he starts to dance. The seasons come and go, Tree grows taller, and soon Christmas comes around once again. And alongside the gifts in their stockings is the best present of all.
The designer will be Lily Arnold, with lighting design by James Whiteside, sound design by Andy Graham, movement direction by Georgina Lamb and video design by Dan Hill.
